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Career Spotlight: MMag. Stefan Wurm, MBA

Why did you decide to participate in the Professional MBA Entrepreneurship & Innovation?There were 3 goods reasons for this MBA program. On the one hand, I wanted to get a deeper understanding of the innovation ecosystem and get insights into the community. On the other hand, it represented a good opportunity to look at innovation not only from a technical viewpoint but to also connect innovations with business fundamentals. The third reason is that I personally consider Innovation as a decisive factor for our future, making it all the more exciting to look at the different theoretical aspects of innovation.

How did the MBA program influence your professional life? For starters, it gave me a formal proof of education that enabled me to set up my own department in this field within our organization. But this is actually the minor part. I still benefit from the deeper understanding and from the knowhow of putting things into practice, for example when dealing with innovative projects, in human resource management, when planning or approaching new projects…

How did you benefit from the program personally?Personally, I benefited from the program in several ways: I met new people and fellow students that turned into friends; my take on things changed and many times I realized this only several months or years later. To sum up: most of all, the MBA program taught me a new approach of recognizing possibilities and of turning these potentials into reality.

What advice would you give prospective students?Use the chance of this divergent team to gather as many different experiences as possible. This chance will not present itself again that soon. Discuss your time schedule with your partner before the program start and make a plan for your work life balance- even if it might not always hold up. Finally: don’t take everything too seriously.

What comes to your mind when you think about the program now? What were the highlights?A first highlight was the teambuilding in the beginning of the program. I just did such a teambuilding with my team and received a lot of positive feedback. Also, the fascinating faculty members who were all very different personalities; I was able to learn something from everybody. And one of the highlights was of course the trip to the USA which was also my personal highlight, because I extended my stay after the field study and visited Silicon Valley.

With which personality (historical or alive) would you like to spend your lunch break?Well, there are quite a few actually. On top of the list would be Mahatma Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Pope Francis, Sophie Scholl and Hans Moser. Which book is currently on your bedside table?My daughter’s current favorite book ‘Heule Eule’ by Paul Friester and Philippe Goossens. Other than that I am currently also reading a book about Silicon Valley by Christoph Keese („Silicon Valley: Was aus dem mächtigsten Tal der Welt auf uns zukommt“) and as soon as it is published hopefully the book "Die Silicon Valley Mentalität“ by Mario Herger. MMag. Stefan Wurm, MBA is an alumnus of the Professional MBA Entrepreneurship & Innovation jointly carried out by the TU Wien and the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. He participated in the class 2011-2013 and is currently Head of Department “Innovation and Sustainability“ at the Federal Procurement Agency (Bundesbeschaffung GmbH).